Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, recorded from the Singing and Sayings of C. Kamba Simango, Ndau Tribe, Portuguese East Africa and Madikane Cele, Zulu Tribe, Natal, Zululand, South Africa. By Natalie Curtis Burlin. New York, G. Schirmer, 1921. Pp. 170.
This work as its title imports does not cover a wide field of investigation and it was not done in Africa. The object of the author is to introduce Europeans and Americans to the soul of the African, who has too long been regarded merely as an object for exploitation. Believing that in the folk-music of a people is imaged the real soul, the author has made in this field researches, the results of which have been herein set forth. The aim finally is to show that the human family is near of kin and that basic emotions of love, of sorrow, of rejoicing and of prayer, whether men be primitive or advanced, white, yellow, red or black, are the same root-feelings planted in us all.
The book begins with a rather long introduction, discussing the geography, history, and institutions of Africa. Much space is here given to spiritual beliefs as a stimulus to the development of music. Then follows a discussion of song-poems and of the early music to which they were set. The actual contents begin with a treatment of songs, tales, and proverbs of the Ndau tribe by C. Kamba Simango. The reader, if he has found the details of the contents mentioned above a little tiresome, will have his interest quickened again by the explanation of the Song of the Rain Ceremony, the Spirit-Song, the Love-Song, the Dance of Girls, Children's Songs, Laboring-Songs, Mocking-Songs, and the like. There are also such folk-tales as the Hare and the Tortoise, the Baboon, How the Animals dug their Well, the Jackal and the Rooster, Death of the Hare, the Legend and Song of the Daughter and the Slave, and the Sky-Maiden.
After this portion of the book comes the Songs and Tales of the Zulu Tribe, recorded from the singing and sayings of Madikane Cele, a Zulu of royal blood. This includes such as the Song of War, Song of Children, Dance Songs, Love Songs very much like those mentioned above. It treats also of such folk-tales as the Creation Story. The music to which these song poems have been set, doubtless will interest most the student of music. Along with this appear keys to the pronunciation of the dialects and translations of some of the songs.
The book is well printed and well illustrated with the art work of the Africans portraying in different ways another phase of African life.
Educational Adaptations. By Thomas Jesse Jones. Phelps-Stokes Fund, New York, 1919. Pp. 92.
This work presents valuable history in its introduction, which consists largely of a sketch of the life of the founder of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, Caroline Phelps Stokes. It is interesting to note that she was a descendant of English Puritan ancestors, eminent for their ability and Christian character. They early manifested interest in the relief of the poor and in the enlightenment of the heathen in foreign parts. From them, therefore, came much of the assistance given to promote the Sunday School movement, Bible and tract societies, missionary organization, the colonization enterprise, and the abolition of slavery. With this record before her it is not surprising, therefore, that Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes early united with the church with a desire "to live the years that still remained with a fixed and determined purpose to do her duty to God, regardless of how disagreeable that duty might be."
Measuring up to this ideal Miss Stokes became interested in the Negro race. She visited the South to inspect the schools for the education of the Negro and impressed with their needs she thereafter lavished upon them gifts which had a direct bearing upon the development of education among these people. Among these were donations to the Haines Industrial School, Hampton, and Tuskegee. Manifesting interest also in the local problems of the race, she undertook to secure better housing for the poor whites and blacks in New York City and established the Phelps-Stokes Fund for the improvement of tenement house dwelling in New York City for the poor families of New York City and for educational purposes in the enlightenment of Negroes, both in Africa and the United States North American Indians and deserving white students.
There follows then a brief account of how the provisions of this will have been carried out. Next one finds set forth a plan for educational-co-operation and the scope of the work of the committee on education which finally brought out the two-volume report of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, the Educational Director of the fund. This is followed by a brief statement on Negro education in the United States, which is a resumé of Dr. Jones's report. The more interesting part of this volume is that which sets forth in detail the manner in which this fund is being used by co-operation with the educational and religious agencies in the South, by giving fellowships to students in Southern universities to stimulate research into Negro life and history, by assisting the work of the University Race Commission on Race Questions, and that of the Southern Publicity Committee.